If Supreme Court upholds Prop 8, state lawmakers have another plan

Discussion not over anytime soon

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds California’s ban on same-sex marriage, the state’s lawmakers are prepared to put a Constitutional amendment before voters that would ask them whether they’d like to overturn the ban.

Planning a party for thousands of people would be a challenge under the best of circumstances. Now imagine trying to pull off such a gathering without knowing what day it should happen or if there even will be cause for celebration.

As the state’s political leaders honored gay and lesbian business and community leaders at the state Capitol on Monday, they said the discussion on same-sex marriage will not end in California if the court upholds the ban.

Voters passed the ban, a Constitutional amendment, in the form of Proposition 8 in 2008.

"We have to go back and re-amend our constitution and remove that one example of discrimination proactively put into our constitution," said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.

Lawmakers need a two-thirds vote to put a Constitutional amendment on the ballot, but that threshold may be an easy one for a Democratic supermajority to meet.

To pass at the ballot box, the measure would need the support of a simple majority of voters.

Leno said if the court upholds Prop 8, California voters would likely see the issue before them again on a November 2014 ballot.

Prop 8 supporters said if that happens, they will launch a campaign to persuade voters to uphold Prop 8.

“Democracy is supposed to stand for the vote of the people, but these Democrat politicians are attacking the people's vote,” read a written statement from Randy Thomasson, of SaveCalifornia.com.

A poll conducted in May by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that public sentiment is shifting toward allowing same-sex marriage. That poll showed that 56 percent of adults would favor allowing same-sex couples to marry.

Opponents of same-sex marriage argue the Institute did not poll likely voters.

The honors at the Capitol were handed out by the LGBT Caucus to about a dozen people, including Rosanna Herber, who helped ensure that city council and county voting districts in Sacramento include gay-friendly voters.

Herber is one of countless thousands of Californians eagerly awaiting the court’s decision.

"The pendulum has swung," Herber said. “So, even if the Supreme Court doesn't do what we would like it to do, it's just a matter of time before there is a law passed that allows people who love each other to be married."